News

News

An UNDEF Kosovo* project engages civil society in monitoring to advance transparency and accountability in local governance. Coordinated by the Kosova Democratic Institute, the project works in 14 municipal assemblies across all seven regions of Kosovo -- Prishtina, Mitrovica, Peja, Gjakova, Prizren, Ferizaj and Gjilan.
more >>

The Athens Forum 2014: Democracy under pressure was organized for the second consecutive year by the International New York Times and Kathimerini newspapers in cooperation with the UN Democracy Fund.
more >>

UNDEF and its partners in the United Nations Working Group on Democracy held an event at the International Peace Institute in New York on the theme of the democratic engagement of young people. The event addressed questions such as do young people find politics irrelevant and dull?
more >>

An UNDEF-funded project in Sierra Leone has empowered the National Council of Paramount Chiefs with a comprehensive five-year strategic plan to be responsive and accountable to the needs and rights of their people as well as contribute to sustained peace, security and development.
more >>

The first project of UNDEF's Eighth Round of Funding was signed on 9 September 2014, one of some 50 new initiatives that will be launched by UNDEF in this new Round. The project will work to strengthen independent journalism in Libya, so that local citizens have better access to information.
more >>

UNDEF-funded Khabar Lahariya is an award-winning rural weekly newspaper published in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in local languages and run by collective of 40 rural women journalists. In May 2014, it won Deutsche Welle's Global Media Forum Award.
more >>

An UNDEF project works for alternatives to prison sentencing in the Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The goal is to promote the effective use of non-custodial and early release measures to challenge the overuse of imprisonment, help decrease in the prison population and build proportionate responses to crime.
more >>

An UNDEF project in Moldova, where corruption and public mismanagement remain major challenges, established a innovative form of joint media-civil society watchdogs to work for transparency and accountability.
more >>

An UNDEF-funded project in Costa Rica works to promote leadership and citizenship skills among disadvantaged youth. In March 2014, the project held a train-the-trainers camp for 50 adolescents, with skills to be implemented as part of a cascading process in their communities.
more >>

An UNDEF-funded project in Tunisia has produced an irresistibly motivational video for the empowerment of girls, as part of a vast programme of civic outreach and electoral education. The project addresses the need for women's rights, participation and political education in all regions.
more >>